Sorrento:
The Town surnamed "La Gentile"
Surriento,
in dialec, surnamed La Gentile, is perched on a tufa rock 50 mt above
the sea and bounded on three sides by deep ravines.People frequented it for
the sake of its beauty of scenery and climate: its an enchanting at all seasons.
Sorrento is noted for oranges, lemons, and nuts, and the town for inlaid woodwork
(intarsio), lace and straw-
plaiting.
Surrentum was never a town of importance. In 1892 it fought
a naval battle with Amalfi in defence of its rights as an indipendent republic.
Its most illustrios son is Torquato Tasso (1544-95),
the poet. Here in 1867 Ibsen finished Peer Gynt,
and still here, some ten years ater, Wagner and
Nietzsche had their famous quarrel.
Todays, Sorrento is the site of an annual regatta (15 August), a film festival,
and international tennis competitions. The Good Friday procession is particulary
colourful.
The Duomo has marble side-portal
of 1479; the facade was rebuilt in 1913-24. Inside, the first chapel on the
right has reliefs of the 14C or 15C. In the nave are the archibishop's throne
(1573), with a marble cnopy, and a pulpit of the same year, below wich is
a virgin with Saints John the Baptist and John the
Evangelist, a painting on panel by Silvestro Buono of Naples
(1852).
The stalls show typical local inlay work. Behind the Cathedral is the south
wall of the town, rebuilt in 1558-61, after a sack by pirates, on the line
of Greek or Roman wall; an arch of the Roman gate survives in via Parsano.
The Piccolo Sant'Angelo, the Deserto, a
suppressed convent, Sant'Agata sui due Golfi, offer a series
of views over the peninsula and the sea, to Positano. By mention, Massa
Lubrense and Punta della Campanella, the Promontorium
Minervae of the Romans, wich takes its modern name from the warning bell
of a tower built in 1335 by Robert of Anjou. The lighthouse commands an enchanting
view of Capri.
Sorrento